It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

The Three Tests of Socrates

page: 1
6

log in

join
share:

posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 07:55 PM
link   
How many times have you been told by a friend about another friend.

Gossip.

Anyone on social media face it daily. Everyday we face it in real life personally. I see it all the the time with my co-workers. Even with my spouse.

So , how do you deal with it?

Use Socrates test of three.

1. Is it truthful.

2. Is it good.

3. Is it useful.

Apply this to your life in the real world and on the internet.

I usually stop when the truthful answer is answered with a " I don't know" , but I want to know more.

Is it good? I wold like for it to be good, but most of the times, I want to know the bad. It's interesting to know the bad.

Is it useful to me? Depends if it is affecting me personally or a loved one.

Do you apply these three tests in your daily interactions ?

Just curious.




posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 08:09 PM
link   

originally posted by: Groot
How many times have you been told by a friend about another friend.

Gossip.

Anyone on social media face it daily. Everyday we face it in real life personally. I see it all the the time with my co-workers. Even with my spouse.

So , how do you deal with it?

Use Socrates test of three.

1. Is it truthful.

2. Is it good.

3. Is it useful.

Apply this to your life in the real world and on the internet.

I usually stop when the truthful answer is answered with a " I don't know" , but I want to know more.

Is it good? I wold like for it to be good, but most of the times, I want to know the bad. It's interesting to know the bad.

Is it useful to me? Depends if it is affecting me personally or a loved one.

Do you apply these three tests in your daily interactions ?

Just curious.



Great stuff. Amazing how Socrates is still relevant after so many centuries!



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 08:10 PM
link   
a reply to: Groot

You know, this is actually a hard one, and begs a very interesting and important question; why do we love gossip so much? Why is a show like TMZ so damned successful? I'll try to address this by using only 'I' statements, though I suspect that the things that occur to me are probably pretty similar.

I don't know what it is about good, juicy gossip, but it is simply intriguing. It's a little bit of drama introduced into one's day that excites and tickles with curiosity. It is also unbelievably dangerous and harmful. There are children literally killing themselves over gossip thanks to the promulgation afforded it through the advent and ubiquitous nature of social media. I have experienced it in my family toward me, and it's awful! Most importantly, however, is that I believe it's rarely accurate. It's very similar to the telephone game and seems to take on a life of its own, such that by the time it travels very far its rife with distortion and inaccuracies.

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, it's immoral and should be avoided. That is, of course, not always easy, but neither is doing the right thing sometimes...



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 08:17 PM
link   
a reply to: TheElectricPriest

Gossip = bonding; isolating the competition?



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 08:27 PM
link   

originally posted by: TheElectricPriest
a reply to: Groot

You know, this is actually a hard one, and begs a very interesting and important question; why do we love gossip so much? Why is a show like TMZ so damned successful? I'll try to address this by using only 'I' statements, though I suspect that the things that occur to me are probably pretty similar.

I don't know what it is about good, juicy gossip, but it is simply intriguing. It's a little bit of drama introduced into one's day that excites and tickles with curiosity. It is also unbelievably dangerous and harmful. There are children literally killing themselves over gossip thanks to the promulgation afforded it through the advent and ubiquitous nature of social media. I have experienced it in my family toward me, and it's awful! Most importantly, however, is that I believe it's rarely accurate. It's very similar to the telephone game and seems to take on a life of its own, such that by the time it travels very far its rife with distortion and inaccuracies.

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, it's immoral and should be avoided. That is, of course, not always easy, but neither is doing the right thing sometimes...



My opinion is that we take joy in knowing of others misfortunes. And that is not a good either it be true or not,it forfills our fantasasies of others failing while we succede.It is wrong, and we should take note and not take that road.





posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 08:44 PM
link   
a reply to: Groot




My opinion is that we take joy in knowing of others misfortunes. And that is not a good either it be true or not,it forfills our fantasasies of others failing while we succede.It is wrong, and we should take note and not take that road.


I think as we mature, as we become seasoned over time, we become a little cynical. We learn to become skeptical. Our dreams of acheivement get crushed by others who seem to outdo us. We get bitter - secretly - and, whenever the opportunity arises, we feel other out to see if we're right or wrong on thinking life sort of is unfair to us. Is it? We start looking for evidence to confirm that it is. We find any reason to justify our inabilities, our shortcomings, our imperfections. When others surpass us, we criticize them and look for faults. It makes us feel more competent. It helps us tune out all the negative things we've told ourselves; all the things others have told us about ourselves. We only want to feel good; we want to feel like we are equal but, of course, in reality, equality is impossible. There's always someone sort of better them us. Someone more competent, more accomplished, someone we wish we could be like and, that makes us feel bad about ourselves. What do we do to combat this? We laugh, we joke, we bully, we find others who will agree with us. It's a viscious circle/trap that creates pain. Awareness of this releases us from its effect. Awareness is a beginning and an ending.



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 08:51 PM
link   
a reply to: Groot

So, what if the subject of gossip is a non truthful, deceitful, manipulative dbag? Could the victims comparing notes on this dbag simply be expressing self protection? Are there any situations where this would be considered ethical?

db quote 'asking for a friend because they gossip often and are worried'



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 09:24 PM
link   
a reply to: Groot

Well we're in agreement, and your post made me think of a story that I heard some time ago and was just relaying to a friend here recently. It was on a documentary where there was a senior CIA man talking about after the fall of the Berlin wall. He was interviewing the man who is credited with starting the East German Stasi, notoriously the most hard-core example of police state in modern history. He asked this man, how did you go about getting neighbor to spy on neighbor, to report on one another? Did you bribe them? Did you blackmail or threaten them?

Anyway, he said that the man just laughed and told him that he didn't need to do any of those things. He simply said that all of these people wanted to spy on one another, that they loved it. Amazing, isn't it?



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 09:26 PM
link   

originally posted by: CanadianMason
a reply to: TheElectricPriest

Gossip = bonding; isolating the competition?


That's interesting. I suppose what you say does have a certain truth, but I guess I would say that it's damaging to those involved as well as those to whom are gossiped about.



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 09:39 PM
link   
a reply to: TheElectricPriest

I think the phenomenon of gossip is fostered by Corporation Inc. It works to its advantage. It drives competitiveness up among the 'worker bees'; makes them work harder to become part of the 'in-group' where the 'Queen Bee' may notice them and might confer benefits upon them, Her pawns.

*Just thinking out loud*



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 09:46 PM
link   

originally posted by: CanadianMason
a reply to: TheElectricPriest

I think the phenomenon of gossip is fostered by Corporation Inc. It works to its advantage. It drives competitiveness up among the 'worker bees'; makes them work harder to become part of the 'in-group' where the 'Queen Bee' may notice them and might confer benefits upon them, Her pawns.

*Just thinking out loud*


Interesting notion, but I don't think that gossip is something conceived of or fostered by anyone, it's simply human nature. It might, however, to your point, benefit certain parties as noted.



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 10:25 PM
link   
I ask that you apply this to the news today.

How much of it is the truth? Are you the one to immediately jump on it as truth?

Is it good or bad? We all know we are more interested in the negative more than the positive.

And , finally, is it useful to you.

I take that as , how does it affect your life. What kind of impact does it have on you personally.

Alot of things I read on here have nothing to do with me and almost always bad.

Let's not get into the truth part because I see alot of hearsay.




posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 11:22 PM
link   
"I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of human excellence is to question oneself and others." Socrates



posted on Jan, 16 2019 @ 11:29 PM
link   

originally posted by: TheElectricPriest
a reply to: Groot

You know, this is actually a hard one, and begs a very interesting and important question; why do we love gossip so much? Why is a show like TMZ so damned successful? I'll try to address this by using only 'I' statements, though I suspect that the things that occur to me are probably pretty similar.

I don't know what it is about good, juicy gossip, but it is simply intriguing. It's a little bit of drama introduced into one's day that excites and tickles with curiosity. It is also unbelievably dangerous and harmful. There are children literally killing themselves over gossip thanks to the promulgation afforded it through the advent and ubiquitous nature of social media. I have experienced it in my family toward me, and it's awful! Most importantly, however, is that I believe it's rarely accurate. It's very similar to the telephone game and seems to take on a life of its own, such that by the time it travels very far its rife with distortion and inaccuracies.

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, it's immoral and should be avoided. That is, of course, not always easy, but neither is doing the right thing sometimes...


Very well said, and gossip is extremely dangerous to the vulnerable , being gossiped about.
The damage it does can often be irreversible.



posted on Jan, 17 2019 @ 12:13 AM
link   
Ever wonder what Socrates looked like?




posted on Jan, 17 2019 @ 03:58 PM
link   
a reply to: InTheLight

Extant sources agree in describing Socrates as being ugly, having


...large fleshy lips like an ass.


link

Which came first?




posted on Jan, 18 2019 @ 11:39 AM
link   
a reply to: CanadianMason

Consider the source of those that describe him as ugly...Was it he who was ugly, or was what he had to teach considered offensive and ugly (causing fear by challenging the programming of the time)?



Before the philosopher Socrates was tried for moral corruption and impiety, the citizens of Athens knew him as an intellectual and moral gadfly of their society. In the comic play, The Clouds (423 BC), Aristophanes represents Socrates as a sophistic philosopher who teaches the young man Pheidippides how to formulate arguments that justify striking and beating his father. Despite Socrates denying he had any relation with the Sophists, the playwright indicates that Athenians associated the philosophic teachings of Socrates with Sophism. As philosophers, the Sophists were men of ambiguous reputation, “they were a set of charlatans that appeared in Greece in the fifth century BC, and earned ample livelihood by imposing on public credulity: professing to teach virtue, they really taught the art of fallacious discourse, and meanwhile propagated immoral practical doctrines.”[2]


en.m.wikipedia.org...
edit on 01CST11America/Chicago040111131 by InTheLight because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 18 2019 @ 06:33 PM
link   

originally posted by: InTheLight
a reply to: CanadianMason

Consider the source of those that describe him as ugly...Was it he who was ugly, or was what he had to teach considered offensive and ugly (causing fear by challenging the programming of the time)?



Before the philosopher Socrates was tried for moral corruption and impiety, the citizens of Athens knew him as an intellectual and moral gadfly of their society. In the comic play, The Clouds (423 BC), Aristophanes represents Socrates as a sophistic philosopher who teaches the young man Pheidippides how to formulate arguments that justify striking and beating his father. Despite Socrates denying he had any relation with the Sophists, the playwright indicates that Athenians associated the philosophic teachings of Socrates with Sophism. As philosophers, the Sophists were men of ambiguous reputation, “they were a set of charlatans that appeared in Greece in the fifth century BC, and earned ample livelihood by imposing on public credulity: professing to teach virtue, they really taught the art of fallacious discourse, and meanwhile propagated immoral practical doctrines.”[2]


en.m.wikipedia.org...


I think it was both: Socrates was considered 'strange' in appearance and behaviour. If you consider some of the physical features others have used to describe him as having, as well as the his weird imperviousness to the effects of alcohol and cold, you'd almost think he was some sort of alien from outer space with, like, super powers. Either you loved him or you hated him. He refused to be called a teacher; instead he got under your skin by showing you your ignorance. That made some people real mad, obviously. For me, it doesn't really matter what he looked like. The content of what his students learned from him does.




top topics



 
6

log in

join